


Know Your Enemy, Know Yourself

by rebelmeg



Series: Rebelmeg's BBB 2020 [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Altered Mental States, Battle, Blood and Violence, Bucky Barnes & Winter Soldier are Different Personalities, Gen, Hydra (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:08:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26446861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelmeg/pseuds/rebelmeg
Summary: The fight between Bucky Barnes and the Winter Soldier might happen in his head, but that doesn't make it any less real.
Relationships: Bucky Barnes & Winter Soldier
Series: Rebelmeg's BBB 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1687957
Comments: 10
Kudos: 26
Collections: Bucky Barnes Bingo 2020





	Know Your Enemy, Know Yourself

**Author's Note:**

  * For [calmena](https://archiveofourown.org/users/calmena/gifts).



> First up, this fic is inspired by [this amazing video of a Chinese dance routine](https://fuckyeahchinesefashion.tumblr.com/post/189296038533/amazing-double-dance-by-hao-ruoqi-in-blueand). I really hope I did justice to the overall feel of it, because it is _stunning_. Cal shared it in the WI server and it IMMEDIATELY gave me serious Bucky vs. Winter vibes.
> 
> The title is taken from the quote by Sun Tzu, "Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster." Which is definitely not the spirit of this fic, but go with it.
> 
> **Written for my BBB square B1 - Mexican standoff**
> 
> Title: Know Your Enemy, Know Yourself  
> Collaborator: rebelmeg  
> Square Filled: B1 - Mexican standoff  
> Ship: Bucky & Winter  
> Rating: Mature  
> Major Tags: blood and violence, Winter is a separate personality, graphic depiction of violence  
> Summary: The fight between Bucky Barnes and the Winter Soldier might happen in his head, but that doesn't make it any less real.  
> Word Count: 771

Could a battle such as this, something entirely in one’s head, be thought of as vicious and violent? Bucky wasn’t sure. Bucky wasn’t sure about anything. He’d been trapped for so long, caged in a prison of gray matter and electricity and pain, but now… he had a chance. A small chance, but a chance nonetheless. And he was so afraid.

The Winter Soldier faced him, in this landscape of their minds. Expansive and colorless, nondescript. Nothing but an empty field of battle. One force against another.

Was it a fair fight? Bucky didn’t know. He used to be a whole person, once, with a brain and mind and body of his own. The Asset… wasn’t a whole anything. A borrowed body, a stolen brain, did he even have a mind?

Too late to wonder now. The battle was on.

For Bucky, it was like walking against a gale-force wind, fording a waist-high river, and walking through knee-deep snow all at once. A struggle on every side. 

The Soldier didn’t seem to have the same problem. He advanced swiftly, surely, his face expressionless behind the muzzle. He never felt. He wasn’t allowed. He was a thing, not a person, and things didn’t feel.

The evil that made the Asset felt, though. Bucky could almost see the evil smile, the smug satisfaction, the confidence that this battle would be over in moments. The multitude of minds that had created the Soldier, and broken Bucky open to put him inside, to take him over.

Bucky stumbled, staggered, fought, and fell. But he didn’t, _couldn’t_ stay down. He knew what would happen if the Asset won this time. He knew what waited for him on the other side of this fight. Watching through eyes that weren’t his own anymore, as the empty shell of the Soldier took over Bucky’s body, stepped into that space and committed atrocities.

The Asset fought coldly, efficiently, a puppet on strings that were held in the fists of Hydra. A puppet that hit hard, harder, moved faster, bringing all his force to bear.

Bucky was so tired, and so scared. He could feel the sadistic pleasure that waited on the other end if he lost, the glee they would feel when his broken body and fractured mind were swept away again

Like it often did, an image of Steve rose to his mind. Bucky didn’t find strength or comfort in it, however. He had tried that before. Thinking of Steve. Of his family. The Howlies. The people the Asset hurt. He’d tried thinking of the scientists and handlers that tortured him, the evil that lived and breathed through them.

It didn’t work. It never did. He wasn’t sure why, but Bucky knew that he couldn’t fight this battle for anyone else.

He had to fight it for himself. And he didn’t know if he was strong enough for that.

He wouldn’t stop, though.

Perhaps that was what did it. The grim determination that didn’t let up, even as his own strength waned.

Because the Soldier… faltered.

Not much. But just enough.

And the tide of the fight turned. 

The Asset’s blows weren’t as strong. His movements not as fast or efficient. He grew clumsier. Tired. As if the puppet strings were becoming tangled. He was losing his power.

And then they were on the ground, rolling, grappling, struggling, and with an enormous heave, Bucky got the high hand, the Soldier trapped beneath him, unable to throw him over. With one sickening plunge, Bucky made his move.

The Asset’s gasp was a death rattle of relief.

Panting, exhausted, Bucky staggered to his feet. It still baffled him, he didn’t understand how he could _feel_ anything. This wasn't real, not like that.

But he could feel what he had in his hand. Feel the texture, the weight. The way the blood dripped from it.

Stepping back, away from the Soldier’s body that lay, twitching and gasping on the ground, Bucky looked at what he’d won.

The heart in his hand was still beating. 

He stared at it, gasping for breath, and the Asset went still, eyes open but empty. Defeated.

Bucky stared.

What now? He’d won, but… what did he do now?

It didn’t matter, he supposed. Either way, he had won. He was… himself again.

Looking up, into the empty gray that spread out in every direction, Bucky let his head fall back. Breathing heavily, one heart in his chest and the other in his hand and with a slight smile on his face, he closed his eyes.

* * *

On a gasp, blue-gray eyes flew open, and Bucky Barnes woke up.


End file.
